Can an annual sports game improve year on year, yet receive a lower score?
This could easily have been called FC 24 2.
Or FC 24 II.
FC 24 2-3-2-1-2 might have been pushing things.
You catch the drift, though: It’s highly playable, yet naggingly familiar.
Passes from awkward angles are less effective.
The AI commits a few more fouls.
Keepers feel different due to new goalie-specific PlayStyles.
Further enhancements occur mid-match.
Nuggets of tactical advice pop up on your HUD, with changes to your personalized presets simply actioned.
Rush is a five-a-side match pop in available across all modes, and a thrill to play in each.
Controls, skill moves, and shooting exactly mirror the 11-a-side version.
Sadly the commentary is dreadful, but more often than not you’re having too much fun to care.
Otherwise Ultimate Team is what you’re used to with assorted quality-of-life improvements.
Bebe, you’re a firework.
Such granular improvements pop up throughout FC 25.
Replays now offer a means to build your own highlights package, and splendid photo mode.
Player profiles within team screens are far more easy to digest.
The pick of these Season Mode upgrades is the sim gameplay option.
As a purist, I’d love to see this become the default way to play FC 26.
The fact it often ends in narrow 1-1 draws already tells me it won’t be.
You love it, then hate it.
You tear into it on social media, then buy it anyway.
You swear you’ll never play it again on Friday, then binge an entire weekend league on Saturday.
Such is the joy, and madness, and brilliance, and fury of FIFA.
Sorry, FC 24 2.
Sorry, FC 25.
EA FC 25 was reviewed on PS5, with code provided by the publisher.
